ICTY Acquits Former Kosovo Prime Minister Haradinaj

Ramush Haradinaj, who once served as senior leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and later as Kosovo Prime Minister, was acquitted by the ICTY on Thursday after being charged with war crimes allegedly committed during the Balkan conflict.^[1]

Haradinaj, who returned to Kosovo on Friday to a hero’s welcome, used his acquittal as affirmation of his country’s struggle to free itself from Serbian rule. “The court ruling proves that I am innocent and that our war was untainted,” he told the Associated press shortly after returning from The Hague.^[2]

The ICTY acquitted Haradinaj of persecution and numerous war crimes, including murder, torture, and rape, which were allegedly committed during the 1998-99 conflict between Kosovo rebels and Serbia. It was alleged that Haradinaj, while serving as leader of the KLA, allowed his soldiers to conduct a campaign of abduction, torture, murder, and rape targeted at Serbs and Kosovar Albanians sympathetic to Serbian rule.^[3]

Serbian officials reacted immediately to the verdict with outrage, possibly jeopardizing any further cooperation with the ICTY in their on-going efforts to apprehend fugitives Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, both accused of war crimes and genocide in relation to the 1995 Srebrenica massacre. Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica also called into question further Serbian cooperation with the European Union, stating “it would be necessary to hear the EU position about this mockery of justice.”^[4]

Serbian President Boris Tadic underscored the effect of the verdict on already the tense Serbian-Kosovo situation, stating that the acquittal "does not bring justice and does not encourage the Serbs and other non-Albanians to trust they will have a safe and calm life in Kosovo in the future."^[5]

In their ruling, the ICTY Trial Chamber acknowledged that numerous war crimes were committed by members of the KLA against Serbs, but the evidence against Haradinaj was “vague, inconclusive, or nonexistent.”^[6]

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[1] Associated Press, Former Kosovo prime minister acquitted of war crimes charges, returns home; International Herald Tribune, April 4, 2008 (available at www.iht.com).

[2] Id.

[3] ICTY Case Information Sheet, Haradinaj et al., available at ww.un.org/icty.

[4] Associated Press.

[5] Id.

[6] Id.